When MakeMyTrip announced its entry into the UAE market in 2020, expanding its portfolio of offerings to travelers across all the emirates, the travel scenario was very different. While the pandemic affected operations on a global level, it also provided the company an opportunity to look inwards and work towards expanding its core business. Grabbing this opportunity to focus on innovations, expansion and new technologies, MakeMyTrip has since expanded its operations to over 400 cities, built and strengthened operations of their primary business vertical – the MakeMyTrip platform as well as launched several new verticals.
In the UAE, the company has grown to become a prominent player amongst online travel agents (OTAs) in the flight booking domain and has now taken the leap towards strengthening its foothold in the hotel booking space.
Speaking exclusively to ArabiaTravelNews.com, Saujanya Shrivastava, Chief Operating Officer of Flights , Holidays & Gulf Cooperation Council, MakeMyTrip says this growth was possible given their two decades of experience in serving and catering to the ever-evolving traveler needs of India.
“Over the past two years in the UAE market, we have leveraged our strengths and helped redefine the experience for travelers in the UAE by focusing on hassle-free booking processes, safe travel options available at a great value, and seamless post-booking support.”
“Customer experience has always been our point of focus and we take pride being a prominent player amongst online travel agents (OTAs) in the flight booking domain today. We are now working on targeting our energies to increase our penetration in the hotel booking space,” said Shrivastava.
One of the biggest advantage for MakeMyTrip’s operations in the UAE has been the familiarity for the large base of Indian-origin residents of UAE.
“However, since we launched, our attempt has been to reach out to every segment with a focus on user-centricity led by transparent pricing. We launched in the market with an Arabic language interface and continue working towards strengthening our user flow basis feedback from users. UAE is home to people from over 200 nations and we wanted to be sure we reached to all of them” he added.
Now, the travel platform is targeting the hotel booking space in the local OTA market. In line with that strategy, the travel platform has tied up with thousands of hotels across the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe to bring special prices for travelers from the UAE.
A recent consumer research conducted by MakeMyTrip in the UAE highlighted that the consumers wanted ‘Flexibility at the time of booking’ and were concerned about ‘high cancellation charges’.
“Keeping this in mind, we launched multiple new features to service the market better. For instance, from a flexibility perspective, the Book @AED1 allows travelers to make advance hotel bookings by paying just AED 1 at the time of booking. The whole amount can be paid later, closer to the check-in date. Similarly, our ‘Pay at Hotel’ feature allows the user to reserve the hotel and pay directly at the hotel.”
Another key feature that was launched in the region was the zero-cancellation feature on flight booking, that allows an assurance of coverage in case of cancellation due to any uncertainties.
“Our Price Lock feature on flight bookings allows users to pay a nominal amount to ‘lock’ the price and return to an assured ticket price later. We will keep on learning and improving our customer experiences further,” said Shrivastava.
MakeMyTrip also launched a high-decibel marketing campaign, ‘Break the Booking Routine,’ to reach a broader base over the summer period. The campaign offers customers up to 20 per cent off on flights and up to 40 per cent off on hotels (applicable on select routes and hotels). Besides these, the company has also tied up with leading banks to launch consumer-led offers on flights and hotel bookings.
“Our flights and hotel booking matrix continue to drive northwards. Our attempt is to build a large base of loyal consumers, so we have recently launched MMT Select – our loyalty program for the UAE, which lets customers earn rewards on flights and hotel bookings,” added Shrivastava.
Shrivastav is confident of 2023, with demand for destinations like Thailand, Maldives, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the UK on the rise. The demand for travel back home for holidays led by India, Egypt, Pakistan, Philippines and KSA has also increased.
“UAE is an important facet of our growth strategy, and we will continue to bolster our offerings in the region. We are open to entering newer markets in the region but nothing conclusive has been decided yet,” he added.
Super App of the Future
11 years since MakeMytrip launched its app, its product basket has massively expanded to offer services beyond booking flights and rail tickets, to include products such as a B2B travel agent’s platform, forex as well as curated content feed to inspire travelers on their next travel destination. In the two years during the Covid pandemic, the company continued to boost its efforts on making tech enhancements that could help drive future growth. These efforts have given them the title of a being a travel Super App in India.
In the last two years, the company also focused its efforts on launching a number of new verticals. Among them, MakeMyTrip entered the b2b space in the UAE with the launch of MyPartner, a platform that was launched during the pandemic and built to fill the gaps faced by travel agent community. Since then, it has onboarded more than 35,000 travel agents in India and has received positive feedback from the travel agent community in the UAE as well.
Other new enhancements include the launch of an API (application programming interface)—based platform called MyAffiliate, which allows them to power other verticals like Amazon Pay; TripMoney, its fin-tech platform that offers insurance products, EMI solutions, foreign exchange trading and more and Where2Go, an inspiration section to help travelers find inspiration for their next holiday.
“This experience, of being a travel super-app in the diverse Indian market, and our strong tech stack, helps us understand the travel needs of users in the UAE better. We call ourselves a super app in India because we cover every possible travel use case. Together with our customer centricity, transparent pricing, industry-leading features, we are working towards establishing MakeMyTrip as a super app in the region too,” added Shrivastava.
